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Trading in iMac- erase macOS Base System Disk Image Volume?

Hi, I am trading in my iMac and successfully erased my hard drive.


However in Disk utility I see there is a MacOS Base system disk image volume which has 1.2 GB/2 GB of data. Should I erase this as well before trading in?

Posted on Jun 23, 2019 5:12 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 23, 2019 5:48 AM

You should format it (totally), but it should be in another mac:

  1. Open terminal
  2. Type diskutil list and find your disk's name (red line):

3. Type diskutil secureErase <level of erasing> <disk name>

Level of erasing:

0 - Single-pass zeros.

1 - Single-pass random numbers.

2 - US DoD 7-pass secure erase.

3 - Gutmann algorithm 35-pass secure erase.

4 - US DoE 3-pass secure erase.

The more the "levels", the harder chance to recover it.

Using this will make traded much harder to recover data (it is also recommended in SSD although Apple said it is unnecessary).

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 23, 2019 5:48 AM in response to paulsonm

You should format it (totally), but it should be in another mac:

  1. Open terminal
  2. Type diskutil list and find your disk's name (red line):

3. Type diskutil secureErase <level of erasing> <disk name>

Level of erasing:

0 - Single-pass zeros.

1 - Single-pass random numbers.

2 - US DoD 7-pass secure erase.

3 - Gutmann algorithm 35-pass secure erase.

4 - US DoE 3-pass secure erase.

The more the "levels", the harder chance to recover it.

Using this will make traded much harder to recover data (it is also recommended in SSD although Apple said it is unnecessary).

Trading in iMac- erase macOS Base System Disk Image Volume?

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